Collective is delighted to announce details of Affinity and Allusion, the exhibition which will open Collective’s new home on Edinburgh’s iconic City Observatory site in 2018.

Featuring new work spanning sculpture, installation, performance, audio work and text by six artists chosen specially for the opening; Dineo Seshee Bopape, James N Hutchinson, Alexandra Laudo, Tessa Lynch, Catherine Payton and Klaus Weber, Affinity and Allusion will be presented across all of Collective’s exhibition spaces, grounds and buildings.

All the artists brought together work between specialisms – sculpture and film, performance and writing, science and art. They all create work which fundamentally asks us to question how we view the world around us. The title of Affinity and Allusion reflects Collective’s approach to working with artists, in which points of mutual interest are identified in order to consider under-represented narratives found on Calton Hill and its surrounding panorama.

Dineo Seshee Bopape, recipient of the Future Generation Art Prize in 2017, will create a new installation which draws on the rich history of the Observatory on Calton Hill to consider notions of cosmology, astronomy and astrology.

For a new work within his Nonuments series, Klaus Weber will present Fagman, a maquette for a monument for contemporary Edinburgh.

Rumours of a New Planet is a research project by Glasgow-based artist James N Hutchinson, who has investigated the life, work and travels of historical figures connected to Calton Hill.

Alexandra Laudo, working as Researcher in Residence at Collective, will draw on her project An intellectual history of the clock and consider the history of astronomy, time keeping, navigation and literature in Edinburgh.

Tessa Lynch has collaborated with landscape architects Harrison Stevens to develop communal seating for the grounds of Collective inspired by the 1970’s concrete play sculptures of Craigmillar and the changing shape of a camera lens.

Collective’s ongoing work with Abbeyhill and Leith Walk Primary Schools will be reflected in a new Observer’s Walk audio guide the pupils have made with Catherine Payton.

Keep an eye on this website and Collective's social media for further details of our launch date.